Methods, computer programs and servers of the aforementioned kind are generally known. They are used in particular for web applications, e.g. for internet and intranet applications.
Web applications are relatively anonymous. The server and the client usually know very little of one another. In particular it is generally not possible for the server to determine easily on the basis of a request for a page from which client this request was transmitted to it and from which state of the clients the request was made. Consequently, each request addressed to the server must usually include full information about the requesting client and about the requested page.
In order nonetheless to be able to apply certain default settings on the server side within a session between server and client (e.g. a choice of a language that is always to be used subsequently), it is known in particular that the client logs on to the server at the start of the session and the server transmits an attachment file (referred to as a “cookie”) to the client in addition to the requested page. The attachment file is appended by the client to every request addressed to this server. In other words it is transmitted back to the server by the client. In this case the attachment file is specific to the server. It is therefore transmitted in addition to the server by the client along with every request addressed to this server. The attachment file continues to be transmitted until either the attachment file is deleted on the client side or a new attachment file is transmitted by the server to the client, thereby overwriting the previous attachment file.
The preset default settings that are to be applied can be contained in the attachment file itself. Alternatively the attachment file can also contain a link to a memory area in the server. In this case the preset default settings are stored as such in the server, whereas in the first-mentioned case they are stored in the client.
The status of the session is usually bound to the session in the sense of the existence of the corresponding client-side communication program, e.g. an internet browser such as Internet Explorer from Microsoft. The prior art approach therefore operates without problems as long as the communication process is maintained on the client side and the communication with the server takes place via a single window.